Around the Long Fire

The sagas are pretty good this week, and we try not to let life get us down, so this all in all is a quiet, pleasant episode of chit chat. Please enjoy! Things Discussed: mid-00s fantasy epics, Hunter X Hunter, NANA, anime takes, Divey vs GGP, gacha check in, Chicago news, health check in See the show schedule here! This’ll tell you which versions of books and which sections of those books we’re r...

Sorry for the short episode again, health and mental health are pretty low right now. Hopefully things will pick up in a few weeks! Things Discussed: Straight culture, Umamusume, vtuber stuff See the show schedule here! This’ll tell you which versions of books and which sections of those books we’re reading each week. Niamh podcasts on Export Audio with Ghost Divers and Ornate Stairwells. Fae post...

A shorter episode this week as we begin the Iliad and have a bunch of podcast work to do after we record, we manage a nice solid hour on both the book and other stuff. Mostly horse girls and food. Y’know, the basic needs. Things Discussed: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Wuthering Heights, Umamusume, Vodka,  Green Yuri, Cooking Talk, See the show schedule here! This’ll tell you which vers...

We begin our largest book yet as we read the overly long introduction to The Iliad and talk a little bit about our time with this book before the podcast. Then, the usual yapping. Em has gotten increasingly horse-pilled. Niamh’s seen the heart of the cards. Things Discussed: bookmark habits, day off activities, Gundam Build Fighters, movie recommendations, Pokemon cards, mental health, book update...

A one and done for this small book of magic and esoterica, but we manage a pretty good discussion out of it anyway! This was a pleasant break of an episode before we climb the mountain for our final book this season. Things Discussed: ritual and magic/spirituality, Hololive chess, scheduling, Gundam X, robots, K-Pop Demon Hunters, A Safe Girl to Love, trans stuff and feminism, Wuthering Heights, G...

We finish the saga, reflect on some books, compare horses and mermaids, and much more on this action packed episode. Things Discussed: Nodame Cantabile, Umamusume, A Safe Girl to Love, Guinea Pig 4: Mermaid in a Manhole, Do You Know Who Jackie Is? Opening music for this book is Ferdia’s Song and Gae Bolga by Horslips See the show schedule here! This’ll tell you which versions of books and which se...

Somehow our boy Cu has managed to turn a gay story even gayer this week, but we soldier on undeterred. We’re just cool and strong like that. Things Discussed: What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Poker Face season 2; ripping CDs; Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist; music scenes; Vive L’Amour; a trip to the zoo; Guinea Pig 3: He Never...

A surprise week off due to medical stuff but we’re back with more murder, lots of books, horse girls, and vtubers! Things Discussed: Umamusume Pretty Derby: Road to the Top; Nodame Cantabile; Detransition, Baby; the ren faire; The Blue Fox, galloping ghost gaming, purses, card pack meta, Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood, Alien Autopsy, All For One, Opening music for this book is Ferdia’s So...

A long episode mostly because Em has started watching movies again. But we have a good time chatting about all sorts of stuff, including the Táin! Things Discussed: FFX metaphysics, DAPs (that’s MP3 players for normal people), Yo Gabba Gabba show, KPop Demon Hunters, The Double Life of Veronique, Red Rooms, Guinea Pig: Devil’s Experiment, Cece and Raora’s 3D debuts, manga corner, the circus! Openi...

Em survived surgery so she’s getting back in front of a microphone again and talking about anime, vtubers, and other such ALF staples. Please enjoy this short but good episode. We’ll return with sagas next week! Things Discussed: Em’s surgery update, the story of the get well present, hopes on the other side of all this, Niamh’s scheduling woes, Gigi Murin’s 3D Live, other vtuber stuff, IDW’s TMNT...

The final episode before our little break, we talk about Cú Chulainn, some books, and the vtuber news of the week. Things Discussed: death and illness, Detransition, Baby, Tehanu, the Vshojo implosion, Nimi Nightmare is getting married!, Pootan 2 and 3 Opening music for this book is Ferdia’s Song and Gae Bolga by Horslips See the show schedule here! This’ll tell you which versions of books and whi...

We pivot to Irish myth and legend this week as our hosts really struggle with exhaustion and life, but there’s st8ill plenty to talk about. Things Discussed: health and reasons for exhaustion (the FMLA paperwork did get done!), the reading of this book aloud , Tehanu, Nodame Cantabile, Niamh plays a new video game, Persona 4 and 5, Freckled1der's Persona 4 LP , the question bucket, bumper stickers...

We finish off La Vita Nuova, and have a general chat mostly about what we’ve been reading. Please enjoy! Things Discussed: the weather, Seattle part 1, Niamh's got a throat thing, upcoming time off, what to do between Seattle parts, Seattle part 2, crab boils and Reubens, Dune Messiah, Gender Outlaw, Nodame Cantabile, The Sluts, Question Bucket x2, a very important Mario ranking Opening music for...

We break format and put the Pootans in various places around the episode. You know, figured we’d get a little meta with it. Dante has a bad dream, but it’s fine. :) Things Discussed: Blue Prince, Pokémon Sleep, Hokuto and Kamiyama's Pondering Pootan, Vinyl, Researching Purchases, The Lathe of Heaven, Nodame Cantabile, Clothing Disaster, Eureka Seven, Incredible Animation, Gender Outlaws, Fountain...

We begin season five of Around the Long Fire by going back to the classics that forged Em into the weirdo she is today, as we crack open Dante and talk about pining and eating hearts, among other things. Usual ALF fun follows, in classic fashion. Things Discussed: Dante studies, Wotakoi, Nodame Cantabile, Hey Kids Watch This, The Beginning of the Slow Bucket Draining, Pokemon, Dagger: On Butch Wom...

The mighty question bucket arrives and we manage to get through about 30% of the questions we got. We’ll hold onto these and chip away at them in the future, thank you to everyone who wrote in and also thank you to Autumn for showing up this season! NOTE: Autumn’s audio is a little weird, hopefully they aren’t too quiet I did my best to adjust them. You’ll hear it on the pod. It was a mess. See th...

We watch a modern adaptation of BA reframing it as a story of the now. How does it do? Wellllllll, not great, turns out. Things Discussed: scams, King of Fighters characters and other fighting games, Wotakoi, Autumn not finishing manga, Dune Non-Autumn Zone: Faggots, armpits, haircuts, recording podcasts while sick, Switch 2, Hokuto and Kamiyama’s Pondering Pootan, Pondering Proctors See the show...

A century of excellence comes to a close and we reach the end of the tale of Franz Biberkopf for the second time, but certainly not the last. We get reflective about our time adjacent to or within games culture on this episode, and then rotate some stupid Star Trek stuff for a bit. Things Discussed: Animal Crossing, star ratings, Nerissa musical , Gigi Murin coming out as ace and demi, talking abo...

A century of excellence comes to a close and we reach the end of the tale of Franz Biberkopf for the second time, but certainly not the last. We get reflective about our time adjacent to or within games culture on this episode, and then rotate some stupid Star Trek stuff for a bit. Things Discussed: Idle Thumbs, Giant Bomb, Star Gladiator, Rival Schools, indie games, media length, Wayside Stories...

It feels in many ways like the entire season was building to this episode, though I’m sure we’ll feel the same way in two weeks. A harrowing show today, and then we enjoy talking about some manga and some books, before Em gets heated about Online and we reflect on the Autumn months (months with Autumn as co-host, not the months of fall). Things Discussed: balancing act of doing stuff, Honey and Cl...

Things go bad on this episode of Berlin Alexanderplatz and they probably won’t go right again until we’re done, so please hang on for the next few weeks. We still have a good episode, even if the mood on the saga is melancholy. Things Discussed: fursonas, Abnormal Mapping, Pondering Pootan, Honey and Clover, misremembering the plot of Forrest Gump, Dune, the Stairwells bracket predictions, Non-Aut...

We get to one of our favorite sections of the book we’d been eagerly seeing adapted, and then have Vtuber talk so long that it ends up taking up two whole segments. Also Em and Autumn get on a goddamn tear about the internet and how people spend their attention. It’s a bit of a gripe session, but hopefully people enjoy it. Things Discussed: Vtubers, ADHD and scheduling, medical stuff and doctors a...

Berlin Alexanderplatz discovered a whole new gear of simmering homosexuality so we’re having a good time even before Franz decided to berate some anarchists and we hoot and holler about politics in this rowdy episode. Then the rest happens, as usual. It’s a great time. As usual. Things Discussed: Gamer Supps (we know about the gamer supps thing but didn't as of recording, this is the last one I pr...

We have more announcements as the next season is finally revealed! It’s … very ambitious. Also, Autumn finished Persona 4, we talk about the silent protagonist, Niamh gets a very cool tattoo, and Em talks about some of the weirdness around meeting new people online. Question Bucket, Season 5 Revealed!, Persona 4, Silent Protagonists, Persona 5, Shenmue (briefly), Niamh gets a tattoo (go check out...

We’re worn out and trying to get the podcast in under two and a half hours from start to finish. We manage it, but barely! We yap a lot about vtubers, Atlus games, and of course good ol’ Franz Biberkopf. Also, we announce an upcoming special episode at the beginning! The main thing is the Metaphor game club comes to a close we both finished the game within a day of each other, and talk about the l...